Stripes of yellow paper 4,5mm

Half a centimeter less half a millimeter

Four and a half millimeters is the second-to-last step of the range on offer and suits places where four would be a hair too narrow and five would already outgrow the pattern. It comes into its own in dividing large camouflage fields on bomber fuselages, in wide stripes on turrets, in the borders around numerical markings in large scales and on car models, where it is used to outline the side stripes of a body.

An edge is only as good as the base

The sharpness of a line does not depend on the mask alone. What also decides it is how smooth the surface beneath it is: over a sanding mark or a remnant of filler the paint will bleed even under perfectly pressed paper. It therefore pays to go over the area with a fine abrasive before masking and to rid it of dust. Over sharp edges and rivets, on the other hand, a mask transfers better than expected when you tap it down with a toothpick in two or three steps.

Gentle removal

A wide band holds more than a narrow one, because it has a greater area of adhesive. Remove it slowly, pulling back over itself, and help yourself with the point of a knife only to lift an end: never to get under the whole length. On models with a high gloss it proves useful to warm the tape with a hair dryer at a low temperature before removal; the adhesive softens and comes away without a trace.

A test beforehand pays off

Before you fit the strip onto a finished model, try it on an offcut of plastic with the same finish. That tells you two things at once: how firmly it holds and whether the paint gets under it. A few minutes of testing saves hours of repainting.